Reason for optimism: After a year of recklessly buying high in the offseason, the front office sold high this past winter.
Reason for pessimism: Management still hasn't addressed bullpen, defensive or catcher-framing issues.
I told you so. In predicting Zack Greinke, coming off a 1.66 ERA campaign in 2015, would post his highest ERA in 2016 since his 2011 season with the Brewers, I used far more logic than the Diamondbacks' front office did when it committed more than $200 million last offseason and slotted Greinke onto the team as currently constructed. With batterymates that are a pitch-framing liability, and backed by one of the worst defenses in baseball in an extreme hitters park, Greinke was set up to fail. Ultimately he posted his highest ERA, 4.37, since 2005 when he was a 21-year-old with Kansas City.
Despite the additions of Greinke and Shelby Miller to the roster, I saw little chance Arizona could outscore its opponents and therefore finish with the above-.500 record many foresaw, let alone have any chance of challenging the Giants and Dodgers for division supremacy. When, after the publication of the projection, 2015's breakout star A.J. Pollock injured his elbow on the eve of Opening Day, Arizona's 2016 fate was sealed before a pitch had been thrown.
Our job is to look forward, however, and